William McKendree GWIN

(1805-1885)

Senate Years of Service:

1850-1855; 1857-1861

Party:

Democrat; Democrat

GWIN, William McKendree, a
Representative from Mississippi and a Senator from California; born
near Gallatin, Sumner County, Tenn., October 9, 1805; pursued
classical studies; graduated from the medical department of
Transylvania University, Lexington, Ky., in 1828; practiced
medicine in Clinton, Miss., until 1833; United States marshal of
Mississippi in 1833; elected as a Democrat from Mississippi to the
Twenty-seventh Congress (March 4, 1841-March 3, 1843); declined to
be a candidate for renomination in 1842; moved to California in
1849; member of the State constitutional convention in 1849; upon
the admission of California as a State into the Union was elected
as a Democrat to the United States Senate and served from September
10, 1850, to March 3, 1855; reelected to the United States Senate
to fill the vacancy occurring at the expiration of his term, caused
by the failure of the legislature to elect, and served from January
13, 1857, to March 3, 1861; chairman, Committee on Naval Affairs
(Thirty-second and Thirty-third Congresses), Committee on Post
Office and Post Roads (Thirty-sixth Congress); an outspoken
proponent of slavery, was twice arrested for disloyalty during the
Civil War; traveled to France in 1863 in an attempt to interest
Napoleon III in a project to settle American slave-owners in
Mexico; retired to California and engaged in agricultural pursuits;
died in New York City September 3, 1885; interment in Mountain View
Cemetery, Oakland, Calif.

Bibliography

Dictionary of American Biography; Quinn, Arthur. The
Rivals: William Gwin, David Broderick, and the Birth of
California. New York: Crown Publishers, Inc., 1994; Steele,
Robert V. (Lately Thomas). Between Two Empires: The Life Story
of California’s First Senator. Boston: Houghton Mifflin,
1969.

Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present